1982 Bronco 351 4x4 - Code name Esperanza

[Gsmblue]

Thanks Gary.

Now to find this ARP lube....

[ArdWrknTrk]

Somewhere Gary did a comparison with ARP, regular motor oil, and -I believe- anti-seize.

I use the same red assembly lube I use on cranks and cams, or my all-time fallback - STP.(though it doesn't have as much ZDDP as it used to)

[Gsmblue]

Ended up using regular anti seize As I could not find the ARP stuff locally.

The intake went on, torqued it on in 3 stages. Was not as smooth as I would like.

The studs were to short for the blanking plate.

Then I went back to the original bolts for those 2 spots and the one furthest back just did not torque down...

All this means I am definitely building an engine next winter!!!

Anyhow, I will put the carb back on today and see how it all goes.

[Gary Lewis]

Do you think the one that wouldn't torque down is stripped?  Or what?

Anyway, hope it works!

[ArdWrknTrk]

I'd pull the stud, flush out the hole with brakekleen or something and run a bottoming tap in there.

I don't doubt the QC of ARP, but if you can find a few threads to grab in the bottom of the hole it would save having to pull the intake (again) to put a thread insert.

On the plus side, you've found the cause of your leak!  💪

[Gsmblue]

I am going to let it ride for now it is under torqued for sure, the wrench clicks at 22. But if this leak happens again then I will have to take more serious action such as described above.

I removed the valve covers and put in new ARP studs to match the intake,

I did not get the carb on today, that will happen tomorrow. I am going to install a spacer below the carb, was an impulse buy, please do not judge!

However, the rear speakers are in and sound great.. the grills I have are for a truck not a bronco so they are smaller. I had to drill new holes to mount them but they fit and look fine. I haven’t painted them blue yet as I was not sure if they were going to work.

I should get her running again tomorrow... watch this space!

[Gary Lewis]

I'm waiting and watching!

[Gsmblue]

Hopefully I will not disappoint.

Only potential issue is my friend is talking about going to the breakers yard tomorrow, so I may have to squeeze that in..

As soon as I get the mess cleaned up I will get some new pics too.

[Gsmblue]

And success!

Got everything put back together. New ARP studs for the intake and valve covers. Spacer for the carb (mainly to give clearance over the GM dizzy!) kinda got the spark leads looking less crazy. All hoses back together.

Now, not all went smooth. Someone, no names need to be mentioned, forgot to mark the rotor position in the dizzy 😵. So out came the remote 12v starter and a few blue words later the rotor was rotated 180degrees and Espy fired right up!

So i closed the trunk and doors and went for a drive. I got to the end of the driveway, hit the brakes and remembered thise those vacuum lines needed to be out back on! I was going slow but still had to stand on that peddle!

I also took the opportunity to dress up the front end a little, black paint on the drivers headlight surround and too grill trim piece . When the wife came home i said Espy was using het mascara and hoped it was ok... i got a smile! Will do the passenger side tomorrow .

I got the timing light and adjusted the timing and idle, topped up the coolant, cleared the tools and went for a quick drive. All is well!

Here are the 2 pics of the day..

[1986F150Six]

Looking very good!

[Gary Lewis]

Excellent!!!!  Glad it worked out.  Finally.  And the headlight door looks great as well.  Mascara?  Cool!


Congrat's!!!!

[Gsmblue]

Thanks for all the help as always, I couldn’t get half of this done without all the help I get here!

I will deal with the other headlight door and the grill today, well, I will mask them up and see if the weather lets me paint them..

I can take care of a few small items today like replace a few dash bulbs that went out went the voltage regulator was playing up and sort out some hoses under the hood...

[Gsmblue]

Didn’t get to the grill, but more mascara on the passenger side.. still drying.

It is pain masking these things. I am tempted to get a grill from the scrap yard and sit with it on the couch to masking it over a few nights.

[Ford F834]

You are not kidding! For “square” lights there sure isn’t much in the way of straight lines when it comes to masking the openings

[Gsmblue]

More pics:

Inside before and after.



Painted headlight door


Front end post make over


Showing off the blue paclock padlock on the spare

[Gary Lewis]

Beautiful!  You've really done well.  

[grumpin]

Nice! That’s a Sasquatchian looking gear shift knob ya got there!

[Gsmblue]

That shift knob was the before pic, it got replaced with an oem part.

I am not against such things but the first thing I did was strip everything out and sanitize the interior, as a result lots of things got tossed!

Current state of engine bay


Undersized speaker grills I need to paint and the painted rear seat hardware



Luka chilling on the new cargo liner

[Gary Lewis]

Looking good!  I really like the underhood light and toolbox.  

[Gsmblue]

Don’t forget Espy has the locking hood and power mirrors too! Highly optioned model!

It has snowed, all work on Expy halted till the sun comes out!